Gloves and mittens are commonly worn to protect a wearer's hands while engaging in cold weather outdoor activities such as skiing, and are, of necessity, somewhat bulky. Because of the cumbersome nature of most gloves and mittens, it is often difficult to make fine manual or digital manipulations, such as working zippers, applying ski lift tickets or handling/eating food, without removing the gloves or mittens. Numerous variations on the basic glove/mitten design have been fashioned to deal with this problem, but none have fully addressed the problems at hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,849,418 to Chesebro teaches a mitten for hunters which incorporates a linear finger slot across the palm portion of the mitten adjacent the junction of the wearer's palm and fingers. The wearer's fingers can be extended through the slot to provide some improvement to the wearer's ability to control a gun or fishing rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,299,441 to Slimovitz describes another mitten with a linear finger slot wherein a flexible flap covers the slot. One edge of the flap is stitched to the mitten and the other edge is releasably secured in place using a Velcro.TM. hook and loop fastener arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,323,136 to Johanson discloses a mitten for hunters and soldiers which includes a separated forefinger enclosure and a hood. The hood normally covers all of the fingers, including the forefinger, as in a standard mitten, but can be folded back to expose the separated forefinger enclosure. The mitten further includes a transverse slot in the wrist portion through which the entire hand can be passed, exposing the hand but leaving a ring of material still securing the mitten to the wearer. Use of the transverse slot provides a convenient way to keep the mittens handy when they are not being worn.
While all of the previously described hand coverings provide some amount of increased dexterity, none afford the adroitness possible with both the thumb and fingers exposed. It will be appreciated, however, that many tasks such as tying shoes or boots, reloading a gun, or writing, are much easier if both the thumb and fingers can be used without the impediment of an intervening glove. In each of the previously described mittens, only the wearer's fingers may be exposed, the wearer's thumb remaining trapped in the mitten. This is unacceptable. Simply removing the gloves to perform precision tasks similarly is unacceptable because it would leave the hands completely exposed to the elements. Also, the wearer would have to somehow hold, or find someplace to set, the removed gloves to free his or her hands. In addition, putting the gloves back on can be an awkward process, especially with the second glove.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hand covering which allows the wearer to selectively expose both thumb and fingers while still providing warmth to the wearer's hand.
It is another object of this invention to provide a hand covering from which the wearer's fingers and thumb can easily be exposed when necessary and recovered without significant effort.